A new bill will allow a person to be tried and convicted of a criminal offence without seeing all the information relied on by the Crown and without the right to be present, the NZ Law Society says.

This Aussie firm's added the most partners in 2015

A survey of Australia’s largest law firms has found that there is disparity between those who’ve been hiring and those that have cut back on legal personnel. Overall job creation was strongest at Mills Oakley Lawyers with a growth in legal workforce in the past 12 months of 40.7 per cent according to the survey for The Australian; Squire Patton Boggs was the international firm which added the most legal jobs with 35.2 per cent increase. Hall & Wilcox Lawyers topped the league of partner creation among domestic firms at 41.8 per cent while Clyde & Co was the international firm with the highest increase in partnerships at 27.3 per cent. However the report shows that the share of the legal workforce at the largest firms was down from 53.8 per cent in 2014 to 52.5 per cent this year.

HSF advises on largest cross-border acquisition in Myanmar
Herbert Smith Freehills has advised on a record-breaking acquisition in Myanmar. Malaysian telecoms giant Axiata Group acquired a majority stake in Myanmar Tower Company. The US$221 million cash-free and debt-free deal was handled by a team including senior associate Peggy Chow on regulatory and associate Mia Harrison-Kelf on M&A. Finance partner Adrian Cheng and solicitor Aaron Chiong advised on the financing aspects. Head of Asia Competition Mark Jephcott and senior associate Adelaide Luke advised on competition aspects of the transaction.

Asia-Pac contributes 11 per cent at Clyde
International law firm Clyde & Co has reported its financial results for the first half of the 2015/16 financial year. The firm’s revenue was up 8 per cent to £192 million (AU$401 million) with 57 per cent from the UK offices. Of the international locations, Asia Pacific contributed 11 per cent with MENA at 13 per cent, North America at 12 per cent and others contributing the remaining 6 per cent.

Barrister tells court that client is “disagreeable old trout”
A barrister has stunned a court with a condemning account of his own client’s behaviour. Margaret Wooliscroft, a 60-year-old farmer from the UK, was in court in Stoke-on-Trent charged with breaching an anti-social behaviour order forbidding her from harassing and abusing passers-by in a local village. Her behavior included calling innocent people “paedophiles” and “drug dealers”. Lawyer David Iles admitted that his client was a “disagreeable old trout” and that she was “about as popular as a diesel Volkswagen”. The Daily Telegraph reports that Wooliscroft was jailed for 28 months, despite the efforts of her barrister to defend her, claiming that “her disastrous reputation precedes her.”